SC tells ND Tiwari to yield

The Supreme Court has ordered Congress veteran and former Andhra Pradesh Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari to submit his blood samples to a medical team to settle a paternity suit against him. The team of medics is expected to visit his Dehradun residence on Tuesday. 

Since the tests will be conducted despite his protests, the Court directed the sample and its result to be kept in a sealed cover.

Delhi-based Rohit Shekhar claimed that 88-year-old Tiwari was his natural father in a civil suit before the Delhi High Court. Shekhar’s plea was supported by his mother Ujwala Sharma.

But Tiwari had been evading orders allowing his blood sample to be taken in order to decide the suit, time and again.

On April 24, 2012, the HC directed its Joint Registrar to visit Tiwari and forcibly take his samples. Tiwari protested before the apex court against this coercive test.

Taking up the plea filed by the former Andhra Pradesh Governor, the Vacation Bench of Justices Deepak Verma and SJ Mukhopadhaya did not wish to entertain the petition for a minute as it viewed Tiwari’s conduct to avoid giving blood samples as “flouting” Court orders.

“Compulsion and compliance of court order are two different things. There is no stay in your favour till date. Courts should not be given an impression that the order of the Court can be flouted by a person who is of stature,” the bench said.

While this was sufficient indication for Tiwari’s lawyer to get packing, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who appeared for the Congress veteran, raised a plea that such an order was unheard of in a civil suit where a man’s blood sample is forcibly taken regardless of his consent. Such order was bound to create dangerous precedents, he argued.

Further, Tiwari, in petition filed by advocate Anirudh Sharma, suggested that apex court decisions have laid down the law that the HC order was unsustainable in the eyes of law.

But the bench clarified: “You are on procedure. But we are on complying with the court order. Howsoever high you be, you cannot be a law unto yourself.” The bench suggested Subramaniam to take instructions from his client when he would be willing to conduct the tests.

On being pointed out that his mobility was severely restricted on account of his old age, the bench directed the civil surgeon based in Dehradun along with District Judge of the area to visit Tiwari’s residence on Tuesday.  A pathologist would accompany to draw the blood samples, which would be kept in a sealed cover and sent for testing at CDFD, Hyderabad.